timeline

The timeline adds information to what is contained in the book and is available on the website, but in the main, doesn't repeat it. Note that some of the pre-contact information is debated by academics and subject to revision as new technology and knowledge becomes available. The abbreviation BP means Before Present.

Spanish mariner, Luis Vaez de Torres, becomes the first European to travel through what is now called the Torres Strait. Dutchman Willem van Colster’s 1623 exploratory voyage is the first recorded European contact with Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land.

Young Eora man, Bennelong, is captured, lives with Governor Arthur Phillip in Sydney at Government House and is later taken to Britain. He becomes the first true mediator between Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups.

In what has become known as the ‘Black War’ Governor Arthur tries unsuccessfully to drive all the remaining Aboriginal people in eastern Van Diemen’s Land on to the Tasman Peninsula. It is spectacularly unsuccessful in rounding up people but is a precursor to Aboriginal people later accepting George Augustus Robinson’s suggestion to move to a Flinders Island settlement, before final repatriation to Tasmania in 1847.

Western Australia’s Governor Stirling leads twenty-five mounted police against Aboriginal people following attacks on the white invaders, British colonisation of Western Australia having begun in 1829. Official records show fourteen Aboriginal people are shot in what’s now called the ‘Battle of Pinjarra’; Aboriginal testimonies suggest that far more.

On the banks of the Merri Creek (today’s Northcote suburb of Melbourne) John Batman claims eight clan leaders of what he called the Dutigullar tribe sign a treaty for two tracts of land totalling approximately 243,000 hectares. It is not recognised by Governor Bourke. Batman offers blankets, knives, mirrors, tomahawks, scissors, clothing and flour in return. Today’s scholars dispute that people who have never held a pen, nor practised writing, signed the document.

The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Aborigines of the British Settlements (North America, Africa, Australasia) concludes that local legislatures are ‘unfit’ to exercise jurisdiction over Aboriginal peoples and their lands. The colonisers ignore the report, and continue to claim Indigenous land as their own.

The first Aboriginal Protectorate was established for Port Philip in Victoria.

At Myall Creek near Inverell in NSW, twenty-eight Aboriginal people are shot by twelve non-Aboriginal men. Seven of the murderers are hung in December and there is public outrage that European men should be convicted for the murder of Aboriginal Australians.

Bunuba man, Jandamarra, a skilled stockman who worked with the police chooses his people over the colonisers. He leads an armed insurgency in the Kimberley. An outlaw to some, a hero to others, his guerrilla war against police and pastoralists lasts for three years.

The peoples of the Great Sandy Desert experience their first contact with white settlers when Canning’s survey team travel 2000 kilometres from Wiluna in Western Australia, surveying the desert and in search of water. It becomes known as the Canning Stock Route.

Aboriginal people are murdered by police following the spearing of a pastoralist in what’s now called the Forrest River Massacre. Two policemen were charged but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence. The 1927 Royal Commission to Inquire into Alleged Killing and Burning of Bodies of Aborigines in the East Kimberly is established. Subsequently, governments were pressured to improve the circumstances of Aboriginal people.

The West Australian state government declares central Perth a prohibited area for Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people could only enter with a ‘native pass’ which was issued by the Commissioner of Native Affairs. This lasts until 1954.

Darwin is bombed by the Japanese and many Aboriginal people are relocated in ‘control camps’, with restrictions placed on their movement. In Arnhem Land, Aboriginal people are recruited into the Northern Territory Special Reconnaissance Unit to defend against the anticipated Japanese invasion.

A referendum is held in May to change clauses in the Federal Constitution which discriminate against Aboriginal people. Nearly 91 per cent of Australians vote ‘yes’ for change, and as a result Indigenous people are included in the Census and legislation concerning the welfare of Aborigines passes from State to Commonwealth government.

Mr Justice Woodward of the Aboriginal Land Commission delivers his first report, emphasising Aboriginal people’s right to prevent mining on their land, and signalling a new approach to Aboriginal land rights.

The Aboriginal Land Fund Commission is established to buy land for Aboriginal groups across Australia.

The Senate unanimously pass a resolution put by Senator Bonner which acknowledges prior Indigenous ownership of Australia, and provides compensation for dispossession of land.
The Racial Discrimination Act is passed by the Whitlam Government. It overrides state and territory legislation and makes racial discrimination unlawful.

International attention is drawn to Aboriginal land rights when Aboriginal people from around Australia travel to Western Australia’s Noonkanbah to help the Yungnogora people fight to stop the Amax mining company from drilling on their land.

The National Federation of Land Councils is formed, giving a national voice to the land rights movement.

Joint Land Councils from the Northern Territory and the states visit Parliament House, Canberra, to protest against the proposed amendments to the Northern Territory’s Aboriginal Land Rights Act and the inadequate provisions in Prime Minister Hawke’s visions of ‘Uniform National Land Rights’.

The Western Australian Government introduces a land rights bill but it is defeated in the Upper House.

Tens of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and some non-Indigenous Australians march through the streets of Sydney on 26 January (Australia Day) to celebrate two hundred years of survival, while many non-Indigenous Australians commemorate the bicentenary of the colonisation of the country.

Prime Minister Hawke responds favourably to the suggestion of a treaty with Indigenous people, but this is never realised.

Legislation providing for land rights is passed through the Legislative Assembly in Queensland, but is markedly inferior to the standards set in the Northern Territory. Land rights legislation for Tasmanian Aboriginal people is rejected by the upper house.

Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Robert Tickner, places a 25 year ban on the construction of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge, after a group of Ngarrindgeri women claim that it is sacred, but cannot be publicly revealed. The 1995 Hindmarsh Island Royal Commission finds that claims of ‘secret women’s business’ are a fabrication. The later 2001 Federal Court judgment finds that there was no fabrication of ‘secret women’s business’.

The Australian government announce a dramatic intervention into some Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in response to the Little Children Are Sacred Report. Against the recommendations of the report, the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act 2007 is passed, and sections of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 are repealed.

Against the recommendations of the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) review, the Australian government continues the Northern Territory intervention for a further twelve months, with some changes.

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, moves a motion in federal parliament of Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples with specific reference to the Stolen Generations.
A High Court decision, known as the Blue Mud Bay decision, gives traditional owners native title rights over the inter-tidal zone of Blue Mud Bay rights along the coastline of northeast Arnhem Land.

The Queensland Parliament amends the state’s Constitution to include a Preamble providing due recognition to Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Noongar man Ken Wyatt becomes the first Indigenous member of the House of Representatives in the federal parliament.

The first board of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, a representative body advocating for the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples rights, is appointed and the company becomes incorporated.

The Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians presents its report Recognising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution to the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. In its Report, the Panel unanimously endorsed a specific proposal to amend the Constitution.